O Be Wise

Recognize Gambling’s Harm and Reject Its Enticements

President Christofferson explains that smartphones make gambling continuously accessible, private, and increasingly pervasive. Youth and young adults face particular risks through impulsivity, peer influence, and intense marketing. Gambling can become consuming or compulsive, crowd out worthwhile pursuits, and create financial, family, and social harm.

Simply put, the industry’s entire business model is built on its customers losing money.

It robs time from studies, relationships, and career development. It crowds out things of value and in their place fosters greed.

The larger concern is that continuous, mobile access can transform occasional entertainment into repeated behavior that displaces saving, increases debt, and creates far-reaching family and social costs.

I pray that you will not treat gambling lightly.

• How does smartphone access change the risks associated with gambling?
• Why are youth and young adults particularly vulnerable to gambling’s enticements?
• Why does President Christofferson describe gambling’s dangers as greater than losing money on individual wagers?
• Where do I encounter messages that make gambling seem harmless or appealing?
• How do peer influence, advertising, or easy online access affect my attitudes toward gambling?
• What boundaries can I establish to keep gambling out of my life and help protect my family?

Consider Where Your Choices Lead

President Christofferson draws on President Dallin H. Oaks’s counsel to consider the future consequences of present decisions. Every activity carries an opportunity cost because time and resources devoted to one pursuit are unavailable for another. Evaluating gambling therefore includes asking what it takes away from saving, relationships, and worthwhile endeavors.

At different times, President Dallin H. Oaks has reminded us that “as we make current decisions, we should always be asking, ‘Where will this lead?’ … What is the effect on our future of the decisions we make in the present?”

President Oaks points out that each choice has an “opportunity cost,” that is, “if we spend time doing one thing, we lose the opportunity to do another.”

What is the opportunity cost of gambling? What do you forgo in terms of money, time, relationships, and worthwhile pursuits? Where does it lead?

• What does “opportunity cost” mean in President Christofferson’s discussion?
• How does considering future consequences help someone evaluate an activity that seems entertaining now?
• What valuable opportunities does President Christofferson identify as potential losses from gambling?
• What do my current uses of time and money make possible, and what do they prevent?
• Which activity in my life most needs the question “Where will this lead?”
• What specific change can I make to give more time or resources to relationships and worthwhile pursuits?

Protect Others Through Your Example

President Christofferson teaches that confidence in personal self-control does not remove responsibility for the influence of one’s example. Children and others who are newer or weaker in faith may interpret another person’s gambling as permission to participate. Drawing on Paul’s counsel, he urges disciples to avoid conduct that can lead someone else into temptation.

But whether you are right about that or not, have you considered how your example might affect others?

A little gambling that seemingly has only a minor impact in your life may be more costly to them if they take license from your example.

Take heed,” he said, “lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

Since your recreational gambling may lead a weaker brother or sister into temptation, just don’t do it. Every soul is precious, and Christ died for him, for her, as He did for you.

• Why is confidence in personal self-control insufficient justification for recreational gambling?
• How does Paul’s teaching about food offered to idols illustrate responsibility for others?
• How does remembering that Christ dies for every soul affect the way disciples use their influence?
• Who looks to me for guidance about what is acceptable or wise?
• What might my entertainment choices communicate to children, friends, or people who are new to the gospel?
• How can I make my example a clearer invitation to follow Jesus Christ?

Follow Christ’s Giving Path Rather Than Taking

President Christofferson identifies gambling as morally wrong, not merely financially risky. He explains that its pursuit of gain at others’ expense conflicts with loving one’s neighbor and faithfully managing resources as stewardships. President Oaks’s distinction between giving and taking highlights how gambling can weaken spiritual sensitivity.

For us as Latter-day Saints, overarching all other concerns is the fact that gambling is morally wrong.

Gambling is built on the desire to obtain something for nothing. Its structure requires that any gain comes at others’ expense.

In addition, our resources are stewardships, and the question is not merely whether a purchase is legal but whether it builds anything—in us, in our families, or in those around us.

The act of taking or trying to take something from someone else without giving value in return is destructive of spiritual sensitivities.

• Why does President Christofferson teach that gambling conflicts with loving our neighbors?
• How does viewing resources as stewardships change the way we evaluate their use?
• What distinguishes Christ’s giving path from the taking path described by President Oaks?
• Where do I notice a desire to gain something without contributing value?
• How do my financial and recreational choices build up my family and other people?
• What act of generosity or service can help me follow Christ’s giving path more fully?

Use Your Agency and Resources to Do Good

President Christofferson invites us not only to refrain from gambling but also to use the time and resources we preserve for good. A life well-lived contributes to others’ well-being, supports work, and pursues worthy endeavors without requiring others to fare worse. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness leads us to seek good causes and remove incompatible activities from our lives.

God has granted life and agency to each of us, and each of us is accountable to Him for how we live that life.

It is being and doing better without others doing worse.

My plea again is not only to refrain from gambling but to use the time and resources saved thereby for doing good.

If we hunger and thirst after righteousness, there are many good things we will pursue and other things that, because they are incompatible with righteousness, we will put out of our lives entirely.

O be wise; what can I say more?

• Why does President Christofferson’s invitation extend beyond simply avoiding gambling?
• How do work and worthy endeavors contribute to the kind of life he describes?
• What does the promise of being filled with the Holy Ghost teach about hungering and thirsting after righteousness?
• What good cause can I support with time or resources I redirect from unproductive pursuits?
• What does hungering and thirsting after righteousness look like in my daily choices?
• Which pursuit can I begin, and which incompatible activity can I remove, to respond to this message?
• What experiences help me recognize the Holy Ghost as I seek righteousness and serve others?